Abstract
Acute pulmonary hemorrhage has been associated with significant mortality in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) . Clinical discriptions, however, are few in number and the etiology of pulmonary hemorrhage in lupus is still unclear.
We have observed two SLE patients with pulmonary hemorrhage, one was massive and fatal, and the other was focal. Causes of the hemorrhage were not clarified in our cases, showing no evidence of septemia, disseminated intravascular coagulation or arteritis. Circulating immune complexes may play a role for the hemorrhage, although their deposition was not demonstrated in the lung of one case (milder one) by the immunofluorecence method.
